Cutting Up with a Mermaid

Once upon a time, in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, there lived two boys named Per and Mike. As they sat quaffing ale after ale one fine day, they happened on a picture of a sight beloved of all Danes: the bronze statue of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid in the city's harbor. Twenty springs earlier, this winsome lass had lost her head to vandals. On this summer evening, Per and Mike lost theirs. In the dead of night, the two boys stole up on the sculpture and sawed off her right arm.

In the sober light of morning, the boys began to wish they had never tried their puckish prank. Whenever Per put his rucksack down, the arm inside made such a resounding clunk that his companions took to teasing him. Per, they said, must be the vandal who had alarmed the city's police force. And so that very night, the sheepish boys aroused a drowsy policeman and placed the severed limb before him. Before Per and Mike can live happily ever after, they may have to pay for the mermaid's repair. And that is likely to cost them an arm, and a leg.